


Secret Flowers

by imaginary_golux



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-30
Updated: 2013-01-30
Packaged: 2017-11-27 14:10:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily and Narcissa have a secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secret Flowers

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Тайна цветов](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10340973) by [lilizwingli](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilizwingli/pseuds/lilizwingli)



Here is a secret. Do you want to hear it?

Well then. Many people will tell you that a Slytherin and a Gryffindor can never be anything but mortal enemies, and they will bring you tales of dark wizards and bright heroes and such toys so that you are dazzled by their words and think nothing but what they have shown you. But I tell you that it is not so: for there have been many and many of the houses of the Snake and the Lion who have been great friends, and more than friends, and I will tell you a tale to prove it.

Now there was a Gryffindor girl as bright as fire and as brave as summer, and a Slytherin girl as cool as ice and as cunning as winter, and they were born on the same day in the same year, though they were as far from each other as could be imagined. For the Gryffindor girl was a Muggle-born, from a family without the slightest hint of magic in twenty generations; but the Slytherin girl was from a noble and ancient house, and her mothers’ mothers had been witches as long as there has been magic in Britain, and that is a long stretch of years indeed.

So they grew up, these girls, far apart and all unknowing, and they went off to Hogwarts to be Sorted and selected and Housed, and there they met. And all of those around them thought that surely between them would be a great hatred, for they were as beautiful as the sun and the moon, and each as clever as the other, and it is the wisdom of the world that two beautiful women are as like to get on as wet cats.

But these girls were alike in two things more than I have already mentioned, one small and one large. And the small thing was that they were named for flowers, pale flowers; but the large thing was that they were capable of great and terrible love. (And many years from their meeting, the one died to save her son and so save all the world; and many years again from that, the other lied to save both of their sons together, and saved the world again: so you see how similar they were.)

Now they were clever girls, as I think I have said, and so they took great care that the friendship which grew up between them was hidden from everyone, friend and foe alike, and they cherished their secret friendship like a shining jewel, and kept faith with each other even when all other faith had been broken. But they were friends, and good ones, as close as sisters (or closer) and as thick as thieves, and they shared all their hidden thoughts and dreams with each other, and made gifts to each other of secret things, and were content with their furtive meetings and their whispered confidences for many years.

After a while it came to pass that they grew from girls to women, as girls will do, and they grew in beauty and cleverness and grace such that there were none like them in Britain at that time, and each was wooed by a handsome man with a dark and deadly secret; but they would have none of the men, for the one was an arrogant fool whose jokes were crueler than they were clever, and the other was an arrogant fool whose words were colder than they were cunning, and the two young women were wiser than that, to be sure.

So it came to pass that when one or the other was particularly curious about some arcane mystery of adulthood, she would go to the other, in their dark and hidden place deep in the castle’s depths; and there together they learnt to kiss (which would have quite astonished their future husbands), and found that kissing was a great good thing, which it surely is. Then after a while they found that touching, too, can be a great good thing, and there was much glee at the discovery of the pleasure of gentle hands upon soft skin, and less-gentle hands and fingernails and the occasional careful teeth, for that matter.

So it was that in a dark and hidden place a Gryffindor learnt how to surrender, and the great pleasure that can come of that, for Narcissa’s hands were sleek and pale and stronger than they looked, and her long fingers coaxed such sounds from her companion that both of them blessed Merlin for silencing charms when they could think again. And there in that hidden place a Slytherin learnt to speak her desires, and that another would listen, for Lily’s lips and tongue were clever and cunning, and she obeyed her companion’s pleas so beautifully as to render her companion breathless and whimpering, which is not at all the normal course of things for a proper Slytherin.

Here is the secret: they loved each other, these two flowers, with a love so strong it burned like ice and fire together. No man’s hands did they suffer willingly until their weddings; but under each other’s hands they writhed and begged and felt no shame, for there was neither blame nor punishment nor threat of humiliation there. No man’s lips did they kiss joyfully until their weddings, neither; but each other’s kisses they sought out as drowning men seek shore. There in a dark and hidden place, unknown to any other living thing, they loved as strongly as women may love, and that is strong indeed.

Here is a secret: they love each other still, though one waits patiently beyond the Veil and the other wears a mask of cold propriety and pride. And if the love of each could save the world, what can their loves together do?

Here is a secret: someday, many years from now, two girls will be born, on the same day in the same hour, and one will be as bright as fire and as brave as summer, and the other will be as cool as ice and as cunning as winter. They will grow like young flowers in the spring, and when they meet, as they must meet, they will know again and always that they have found love.


End file.
